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1 Password encryption in Pandora FMS

Pandora FMS supports the encryption of passwords stored in the database. The encryption key is generated from a user provided passphrase and is not stored in the database (neither the key nor the passphrase) so that passwords cannot be recovered from a database dump. Once the passphrase is configured, encryption works transparently for the user.

If you lose the password given by the user you will not recover the password stored in the Pandora FMS Database. Save this password in a safe place and do a backup of: 'config.php and pandora_server.conf.

1.1 Technical details

Passwords are encrypted using the Rijndael cipher with 128 bit blocks in ECB mode. A 256 bit key is generated at startup from the MD5 of the passphrase.

1.2 Configuration in a newly installed Pandora FMS

To enable password encryption the passphrase has to be configured in both the Pandora FMS Server and the Pandora FMS Console:

Edit the pandora_console/include/config.php file and add the following line:

$config["encryption_passphrase"]="your encryption passphrase";

Edit the /etc/pandora/pandora_server.conf file and add the following option (note that there are no quotes around the passphrase):

encryption_passphrase your encryption passphrase

Do not forget to restart the Pandora FMS Server after the changes have been made.

1.3 Configuration in an existing Pandora FMS installation

Configure password encryption following the steps required for a newly installed Pandora FMS. At this point any new passwords configured in the Pandora FMS Console will be stored in the database encrypted, but already existing passwords must be encrypted too. To achieve that run the script:

/usr/bin/pandora_encrypt_db /etc/pandora/pandora_server.conf

The script will refuse to run a second time, otherwise passwords would become corrupted.

1.4 Changing the encryption passphrase

Changing the encryption passphrase is possible in case it gets compromised. First, passwords in the database must be decrypted:

/usr/bin/pandora_encrypt_db -d /etc/pandora/pandora_server.conf

Then, after changing the encryption passphrase (as described in the configuration in a newly installed Pandora FMS section), they can be encrypted again: